Military Museum (Belgrade)

In the late afternoon I visited the Military Museum, located inside Belgrade Fortress, which I expected to be a relatively quick walkthrough. Instead, it took almost two hours – even though many of the early display cases had no english translation.

Military Museum, Belgrade

One thing I took away from the museum was just how bloody the history of the region has been – as was evident from fairly early on in the walkthrough with some quite horrifying exhibits, such as a reconstruction of the skull tower from Nis (a tower constructed after the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire using the skulls of 952 Serb rebels).

As you move into 20th century history the display cases start to provide english translations for all exhibits, which inevitably slows your pace down. However, the history is so unfamiliar that it demands your full attention.

Fragment of burned books salvaged from the National Library, after the bombing on April 6th 1941

The displays include much information about the Salonika Front in the First World War, the assasination of King Aleksandar Karadordevic in Marseille (one of the exhibits is the bloodied uniform that he was wearing that fateful day) and the Partisan campaigns in the Second World War (from month to month, year to year).

Star on the wall of the Military Museum, Belgrade

Finally, the recent Balkan conflicts are covered in the last room – including an alarming glass display case with radioactive symbols which turned out to be depleted uranium ammunition used by NATO in 1999.